Pritish Nandy Communications has started work on making Shakti Samanta’s famous action thriller ‘Howrah Bridge’, starring the legendary actors Ashok Kumar and Madhubala, and featuring Helen’s most celebrated cabaret number “Mera Naam Chin Chin Choo” (sung by Geeta Dutt) and the unforgettable “Aaiye meherbaan” (sung by Asha Bhosle) in a spectacular and modern animation version. The original film, shot in black and white in 1958, is a cult classic and also starred legendary actors like K N Singh, Om Prakash, Madan Puri, Mehmood and Minoo Mumtaz. O P Nayyar’s blockbuster music and soundtrack was another high point of the film.

The film is being made by PNC as a tribute to the genius of Shakti Samanta, one of Bollywood’s legendary film makers, and the animation will be done by Florida-based Motion Pixel Corporation, who are already partnering PNC on five other animation film projects.
“It has long been my desire to make Howrah Bridge in a modern animation format. It’s my personal tribute to Shakti Samanta and he has very kindly agreed to involve himself as a consultant to the movie. Ashok Kumar was a friend and even though I did not know Madhubala personally, I had heard many stories about her from Kishore Kumar, who was one of my closest friends,” says Pritish Nandy, Chairman, PNC. “Howrah Bridge is one of the most memorable films of that glorious period of Indian cinema and I am delighted to announce it as one of the first classics that we want to bring to today’s generation of viewers in an exciting new format like animation. Our partners in Florida, Motion Pixel Corporation will handle the animation.”

Manny Bains, Chairman, Motion Pixel Corporation, says: “It’s a rare opportunity that one gets to remake a cult classic like ‘Howrah Bridge’ and we are absolutely delighted to work with PNC on this wonderful film and bring it alive for the new generation of Bollywood movie watchers. As it is, everyone knows the movie’s hit songs by heart. It was also one of the biggest hits of Bollywood. Now today’s generation will be able to see the film in a bigger, sexier, more exciting, modern format, in full colour. This is going to be the first of our classic discoveries in Bollywood. Trust us. PNC and I will be back with more.”